Mulk, Karwaan, Fanney Khan: Neck-and-neck at box office

Rishi Kapoor and Taapsee Pannu in Mulk

It was a busy weekend at the box office as three releases - Mulk, Fanney Khan and Karwaan - hit screens on Friday. The Rishi Kapoor starrer ran neck-and-neck with Irrfan Khan's road trip comedy, with the former earning Rs 8.16 crore and the latter, close at Rs 8.10 crore. With an impressive line-up of stars in Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Rajkummar Rao, Fanney Khan was close behind, earning Rs 7.9 crore over the opening weekend. It must be noted that at 800, Mulk had opened at the lowest number of screens of the three releases.

Trade expert Amod Mehra says that the wide acceptance of the Taapsee Pannu starrer is an indication of the audience's inclination for content-driven cinema. "We can clearly see that the audience is choosy about the films they want to watch. Mulk is a thought-provoking film, and the positive word-of-mouth has worked in its favour. Though Karwaan received a mix response, the audience is flocking to theatres to watch Irrfan Khan. There aren't any big releases next week, so these films have another 10 days to make merry."

Karwaan

Trade analyst Akshaye Rathi feels that the negative reviews notwithstanding, Fanney Khan has appealed to its target audience. "I feel, all films have had a decent run so far. Fanney Khan has been targeted at the mutiplex audience and is doing well there," he says.

Rathi also points out that the movies have seen stiff competition from the spillover release of past week, Mission: Impossible - Fallout. "It has been popular among the audience. The film is the Hollywood equivalent of a Rohit Shetty entertainer, and is doing well in its second week."

Also Read: Dhadak box office: Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan Khatter's film rakes in Rs 33 crore in its first weekend

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